Endocrine Abstracts

Obesity, insulin resistance and high cholesterol levels are hallmarks of the metabolic syndrome. The molecular players involved in the onset of the metabolic syndrome are mostly unknown. In this context the three pseudokinases of the tribbles family have emerged as potential candidates. Among them, TRB3 has been described as a negative regulator of Akt, a key player in insulin signal transduction. However, the biological functions of TRB family members remain largely unknown. ...

Disruption of the balance in energy homeostasis and substrate metabolism can lead to obesity and the metabolic syndrome on one hand and body wasting in cachexia associated with cancer and other chronic diseases on the other hand. Indirect evidence suggests that prostaglandins (PGs), products of the cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway, are involved in the regulation of metabolic processes under physiological conditions or during disease, in particular cancer cachexia. However, the dir...

Objective: Recently rare heterozogous AMH genetic variants have been identified in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) that result in reduced AMH signaling. However, the exact functional mechanism remains unknown. Therefore, we have performed functional analyses to analyze the processing, secretion and signaling of these PCOS-specific AMH rare variants.Methods: Six PCOS-specific AMH variants containing mutations (V12G, P151S, P270S, P352S, P362S,...

Introduction: Estradiol is an important parameter in the evaluation of female fertility. Moreover, the measurement estradiol is essential in determining the right moment for oocyte retrieval in modified natural cycle IVF (MNC-IVF). Estradiol is measured by an immunochemical method and a change between immunoassays usually comes with a change in reference values due to differences in antibodies used and the lack of harmonization. In our hospital we changed in 2014 from the Auto...

Binge-eating disorder is the most prevalent eating disorder diagnosed, affecting three times more women than men. It is characterised by binge-eating episodes: the rapid consumption of a large amount of food, without needing the calories. The gut hormone ghrelin stimulates appetite and reward signalling, and loss of its receptor reduces binge-eating behaviour in male mice. We aimed to examine the influence of ghrelin itself on binge-eating behaviour in mice of both sexes. 5-we...

Thyroid hormones (TH) play an important role in brain development, central nervous system functions and energy metabolism. In order to mediate these effects in the brain, TH are actively transported through the blood-brain barrier from the periphery to the brain. Tanycytes are specialized ependymal cells that line the wall and the base of the third ventricle in the mediobasal hypothalamus. The cell bodies are in contact with the cerebrospinal fluid and send their processes to ...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a disorder associated with infertility and metabolic disturbances. Ovaries of PCOS women contain an increased number of growing follicles. Such an ovarian phenotype is also observed in mice lacking the ovary-specific growth factor anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). To determine the interaction between ovarian and metabolic function, we studied the metabolic phenotype of mice lacking AMH signaling as a model for an altered profile in ovarian ...

Objective: The saline infusion test (SIT) is a standard confirmatory test for primary aldosteronism (PA) and based on impaired aldosterone suppression in PA compared to essential hypertension (EH). In the past, aldosterone was quantified using immunoassays (IA). Due to the more widespread use of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in clinical routine, we aimed at a method-specific aldosterone threshold for the diagnosis of PA during SIT and explored the d...

Introduction: Even though it is well known that long-term complications, such as renal insufficiency and brain calcifications can occur in patients with hypoparathyroidism (HPT), the risk of cardiovascular diseases still remains unclear.Objective: To perform a systematic assessment of cardiovascular function in a well-characterized cohort of patients with HPT compared to population-based controls.Methods: 133 patients with chronic ...

The lutropin receptor (LHR) is associated with reproduction and becomes activated by choriogonadotropin (CG) or lutropin (LH) resulting in different physiological functions with regard to differing signaling cascades. The underlying mechanisms in receptor/hormone interaction are not yet understood. CG is known to induce trans-activation at LHR oligomers (activates a second receptor), but details of LH mechanisms were not clarified yet.To study this issue...